Truthful Tuesday: the one where the universe toyed with me for not being prepared.

I feel like I always bring the chaos. Fortunately, it's usually hilarious chaos mostly described by a lot of wasted time. But still.
My dad turns 70 on the 19th. Which is still almost a week away, so I have plenty of time for gifts to arrive. Plus, he and my step mom are heading out of town before hand to go on an African Safari adventure. (My dad is a lot cooler than I am, for the record.) So, probably I have more time, because I figure we'll do birthday after they get back. Not that I've done nothing, but I hadn't yet committed to what I wanted to get for him.
Friday afternoon Stepmom texts me that we're going to do birthday dinner with Dad on Sunday if I'm around because my brother and his family are heading to Florida for two weeks. Ruh-roh. That's ok, it's only Friday, I can find something by Sunday! Totally.

 Saturday morning I got to the local outlets early to see what the Saks off 5th might have for a man turning 70. It's not all that fancy here in the sticks where I live, so that's pretty much the only place to find something with a designer label. Not that it's required to gift designer of course, but he IS turning 70. That's a big birthday! I found the most gorgeous jacket that was so very him. It was classy but current, without being too youthful. It was a gray wool with buttery soft leather sleeves and yolk. But. It was a size medium. I asked a sales person if they had more, and she thought they did, so checked the computer. Computer said, yes, there were TWO more and both in his size! Yes! So she and I set about scouring every single rack in that store. Nowhere to be found. Finally she asked the manager. The manager looked at the tag and said, "ohhh... This is from a mixed lot. So those two XL's could be anything from this brand. Not necessarily this jacket." Womp womp. So after wasting half my morning hunting for a mirage, I left empty handed. I had horsey time scheduled for the rest of the afternoon, but figured it was ok, I could head up to the mall after feeding dinner. Said mall is a 40 minute drive on a good day, but took a bit longer because it was pouring buckets, dark out, and very foggy. Got there around 7:30 giving me time to shop. I first stopped at the Nordstrom Rack next door, but the men's department had NOTHING. Not even sure why they bothered having one at all. So on I went to the mall where there is a real Nordstrom. They also had the tiniest of men's sections. The women get the entire second floor, and most of the first. The men share half the first floor with the kids. Ridiculous. I mean, I'm all for women's rights, but in the case of shopping for my male relatives, this is terrible!
Ok brain... what else might I find for Dad for his big birthday? Ah! This mall has a Louis Vuitton! I'll get him a belt! It's fine, he's worth it, and I love ramen noodles for every meal. Perfect! Except, now it's 8:05 pm, and apparently, despite the mall being open until 9, LV makes its own hours. They closed at 8. Son of a.....!!!!!!!!!! Ugh. Back to Nordstrom. A VERY nice (adorable) young man (he was probably the age of most of you bloggers, but much younger than I) was kind enough to try and help me. We talked about what dad likes, and basically he had the same thoughts as I did. There really wasn't anything there for him. So I decided to just get something small for him to open with an explanation of why I suck as a daughter and that his gift is in fact in the mail (which by 11 pm that evening it mostly was.) I wound up getting him a Vineyard Vines belt with the Giants logo on it. He liked it well enough, and said it was fine that the rest wasn't there yet, because he didn't mind postponing turning 70. (Always a jokester.)
I wound up ordering him a gorgeous (yet fairly casual) belt by Prada (but from Rue La La, because you can only eat so much Ramen) and a fun book. The book is personalized, so you tell them the birth date including the year that the recipient was born, and they make a book consisting of every New York Times front page from that date for each year the recipient has been on earth. My dad was born and raised in Brooklyn, so he'll definitely get a kick out of that. While I was hunting for the perfect gift online, I also found his father's day present, so at least I'm now ready ahead of time for SOMETHING!
Have you ever found yourself suddenly unprepared when you thought you had plenty of time? Did the universe kick you in the face too by making it impossible to find what you needed?